D&D 5E New Spellcasting Blocks for Monsters --- Why?!

[Paul Farquhar]

Well, therein lies the rub then doesn't it. You can't lay out advice and sidebars and "show the work" because it's seen as "undermining the fandom" so, the DMG remains a largely unread book that sits on the shelf because it's crap.

I think there is a fair case for axing the DMG. It's existence is largely a hold-over, many other RPGs just have a core rulebook (and a monster book).

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Let me guess; you'll also against race as class, material components, stat differences by sex, gold for exp, and weapon speeds???

are there still people pro sex based stat mods???? I almost can't believe that... maybe I just don't want to

 

[GMforPowergamers]

zI've frankly never understood the actual value derived from weapon speeds. They're a huge fiddly pile of...not much going on.

teh only thing I like about it is that it gives weapons things other than damage die... why play a rogue with a knife 1d4 when you can weald the d6 short sword or d8 anarchism? flavor. Why penalize people playing for favor 2pts on average damage? If daggers were faster that would be diffrent... and a choice then.

 

[dave2008]

If it's in the core books you are paying for it whether you want it or not.

I'm a teacher. People learn through doing (and sometimes failing), not by being told what to do.

I'm not suggesting the book tells them what to do. I am suggesting the book provides helpful information. I don't mind paying for content i don't personally find useful, if it is useful to someone else. I mean at least half, if not more, of the text in the MM is not useful to me. I still buy the book though.

People learn in many ways (my partner was a teacher and I have been a coach). People can learn from experience and they can learn from the experience of others. Also, it is even better if you have both that reinforce each other.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I'm not suggesting the book tells them what to do. I am suggesting the book provides helpful information.

But if the book is a core rulebook, "helpful information" is interpreted as Word of God.

a booklet called "Advice for new DMs" could be included in starter sets and available online.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

I don’t understand why some people care so much about the accuracy of CRs. The game is so swingy, anyway.

I only vaguely pay attention to the CRs, and I haven’t used the DMG calculations for encounter difficulty in…years. I just pick some monsters that seem cool. Sometimes it turns out harder than expected, sometimes easier. But always fun.

I mostly ignore CR... but I ignore it becuse of how bad it is. (Hey I threw shadows in 1 encounter and hobgoblins in another the Hobo's are higher CR why were shadows deadlier?)

 

[Vaalingrade]

teh only thing I like about it is that it gives weapons things other than damage die... why play a rogue with a knife 1d4 when you can weald the d6 short sword or d8 anarchism? flavor. Why penalize people playing for favor 2pts on average damage? If daggers were faster that would be diffrent... and a choice then.

I don't know how it works in 5e, but daggers are good for stab-stab-throw attack routines.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Given that 5e combat is very forgiving, I’m not really sure what “tpk machines” you are referring to. Given that a pretty constant and consistent refrain is that 5e is too easy, I’d guess that “TPK machines” might be overstating things just a bit.

anything that gets around HP death... shadows, intelect devourers, mind flayers all can kill PCs way above them...

infact throw a 20th level party into a room full of shadows and intelect devourers and the idea of no PC death would be HARD

 

[Vaalingrade]

If we're talking the old 'playing smart' chestnut, the Shadow alone basically means the world is already dead, it just doesn't know it yet.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

teh only thing I like about it is that it gives weapons things other than damage die... why play a rogue with a knife 1d4 when you can weald the d6 short sword or d8 anarchism? flavor. Why penalize people playing for favor 2pts on average damage? If daggers were faster that would be diffrent... and a choice then.

Well, that's why I liked the weapon keywords and properties from 4e. Those created an actually interesting space. They could even have been expanded. Frex:

Accurate (+1 to hit)
Finesse (can use Dex for hit/damage)
Defensive (+1 shield bonus to AC while wielding at least one Defensive weapon)
Brutal N (reroll damage dice that show N or less)
High Crit (roll extra dice when landing crits)
Unstoppable (increase crit range by 1)
Savage (roll damage twice, take the higher value)
Blunt (replace normal damage dice with average value, rounded down)
Thrown (can be used for ranged attacks without improvisation)

Etc. I'm sure I could come up with more if I weren't exhausted. The idea being, the properties don't have to be complicated, and each weapon could have (say) at most 2 properties, maybe 3 for fancy exotic weapons.

Of course I also liked the idea that you could have feats that hooked into "I use axes" stuff, but I doubt 5e is interested in that level of mechanical engagement.